We’d been planning it for weeks. This would be the year when we would have our own float in the Saint Patrick’s Day parade! We
wouldn’t just be standing on the sidelines, watching and waving. No! This year we’d be taking part!

My best mate Ryan’s dad, he’s got a tractor. And this year we’ve managed to talk him in to borrowing a flat-bed trailer for a
couple of weeks. Every day after school, and for a couple of weekends we’ve been decorating it. No amount of work spared, though we didn’t have much cash to lay out.

So there’s Ryan and me, Malachy, Conor, and Ewan from school. And Ryan’s dad to drive, of course. It would have been nice to pick
a theme but that was a bit beyond our scope. Instead we decided to keep it simple and go with the green, white and gold. With a few shamrocks thrown in, here and there!

And then, wouldn’t you know, the forecast is for rain. Not just rain, but wind and rain. Gales and torrential downpours! We could
not bother to turn up, but we’ve put our names down now, told all our mates what we’re doing. Not to mention all the hours we’ve put into this thing.

We had a meeting the day before and made an agreement – we’d go, take part, what ever it turned out to be like!

And then the morning turned out to be bright, sunny even. So it was a bit windy but nothing extreme. We draped the tractor cab in
the colors, put the final touches to the float, then we all went inside to get ourselves kitted out too.

There’s no shortage of things to get dressed up in. Almost every shop has the green wigs for sale, the green, white and gold face
paint. You can even buy St. Patrick’s t shirts but we’ve already got plenty of green clothes from the football, soccer and rugby seasons. So once we’re kitted out, we have a lucky dip with the
wigs, the hats, then go to town with the face paint. Anyone that knows us will still recognize us but we’re pretty pleased with the results.

We’re down at the starting point at 1pm. There’s masses of floats there already, some much more elaborate than ours, others a bit
more basic. There’s people in great costumes, others in their every day clothes. And there’s a band, not a big one, but a band none the less to lead the parade. There’s speakers on some of the
floats that are playing all different types of music.

We’re given our place at about the middle, and we all move slowly off. And of course it is then that it decides to rain. Nothing
spectacular, just a heavy drizzle, and let’s face it – we’re used to that here. The parade will last about an hour, an hour and a half, and there are people lining the streets, waving, cheering,
having a good time. There’s the little kids all proudly waving their flags, shouting, pointing, some in tears scared by the strange costumes.

The sky suddenly opens and the rain pours down. It’s like someone has a giant hosepipe pointed in our direction, like they’ve
turned the tap on fully and are keeping it going.

We’re dripping wet! Our wigs are like some green seaweed and our face paint is running in streaks, down our faces to drip onto our
soggy clothes. And our clothes look like we’ve jumped into the pool with them one. The wind is getting stronger, colder. I’ve got goosebumps. My teeth are chattering and I am shivering as though
I’ve got the flu.

But you know what? It’s great! Fantastic! And I’m more than willing to do the same thing all over again next year!